EFFECT OF SEVERE FROST ON ANIMAL LIFE. 293 
with immense sheets of ice floating down with the ebb-tide, and 
so thick was the ice that I was unable to get out in my punt 
until low water, by which time the greater part of the ice 
had floated out to the bay. On getting near Bartragh I found 
that great numbers of Wild Ducks had come down from the bogs 
and lakes, their inland feeding-grounds being frozen out, but 
owing to the lowness of the tide I was unable to get at the Ducks 
resting on the sands, and meeting with few stragglers within shot . 
of the punt, I only secured four and a half couples. The Widgeon 
were in large numbers, as if all the inland feeding birds had 
come down to the estuary, but notwithstanding the severity of 
the frost they were wilder than ever, and quite unapproachable. 
I also remarked a great many Godwits and Knots, the former 
appearing in larger numbers than usual. 
The morning of December 12th was ushered in by a thaw, 
accompanied by hail, which afterwards turned to snow, thickly 
covering the ground; the frost setting in again at 3 p.m., and 
with such severity that at 11 o’clock that night the thermometer 
indicated twelve degrees of frost. Next day the hard frost 
still continued with a thick fog freezing on everything, and 
covering the branches of the trees and hedges with beautiful 
crystals. The birds now began to feel the effects of cold and 
hunger, and by the 14th they suffered severely, the ground being 
quite covered with hard-frozen snow, obliging them to take to 
the shore in search of food amongst the seaweed and shingle. 
When the tide was out I observed Fieldfares, Redwings, Thrushes, 
Starlings, Larks, and a few Blackbirds and Chaffinches, out on 
the sands, all looking very miserable with their feathers ruffled 
up. One Starling and a Fieldfare I picked up dead. That 
evening the Starlings were so affected by the cold that numbers 
tried to get in at the windows, and others crept for shelter and 
warmth into holes under the eaves of the farm-buildings and 
cattle-sheds. Some even came down the chimneys, and on the 
morning of December 15th we found seven Starlings behind 
the grate of one of the sitting-rooms, four of which were dead. 
The Rooks, for want of their natural food, became carnivorous in 
their habits, like Ravens and Hooded Crows, and killed and 
ate the weakly and dying birds wherever they could find them. 
We commenced feeding the birds twice a day, but it was 
very difficult to manage this, for the Rooks being the stronger 
